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Bioactive tumour necrosis factor alpha but not granulocyte‐ macrophage colony‐stimulating factor correlates inversely with Langerhans' cell numbers in skin tumours
Author(s) -
Rubel Diana M.,
Barnetson Ross St. C.,
Halliday Gary M.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19980119)75:2<210::aid-ijc8>3.0.co;2-x
Subject(s) - granulocyte , granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor , macrophage , necrosis , tumor necrosis factor alpha , pathology , langerhans cell , immunology , medicine , granulocyte colony stimulating factor , biology , cytokine , antigen , chemotherapy , in vitro , biochemistry
Langerhans' cells (LCs) are thought to play an important role in presentation of tumour antigens for the induction of anti‐tumour immunity. Epidermis overlying some transplanted murine skin tumours contains increased numbers of LCs; however, alterations in LC numbers are not related to tumour antigenicity or host immunity, suggesting that another factor(s), such as tumour‐produced cytokines, influences LC density. It has been postulated that dendritic epidermal T cells (DETCs) play a role in immunosurveillance within the normal epidermis. Two cytokines which potentially alter LC numbers or function include granulocyte‐macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF) and tumour necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α). GM‐CSF maintains LC viability in culture, and there are reports that it can increase LC density. There is evidence that TNF‐α induces LC to migrate from the epidermis. In the present study, LC densities in regressor and non‐regressor murine skin tumours and overlying epidermis were enumerated, and bioactive GM‐CSF and TNF‐α present in the tumours were measured. We found significantly increased epidermal LC numbers above non‐regressor, but not regressor, tumours. DETC numbers were significantly increased above some tumours. Although all tumour types produced TNF‐α, the regressors, which did not increase LC numbers, produced the most TNF‐α. In contrast, tumour production of GM‐CSF did not correlate with any pattern of alteration of LC density or tumour growth. Tumour production of neither cytokine nor tumour growth correlated with DETC numbers overlying tumours. Our results suggest that TNF‐α may be associated with skin tumour regression and may prevent LC accumulation by tumours. Int. J. Cancer 75:210–216, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.